Paramesotriton (fuzhongensis?) eggs

[laurie]

My oldest Paramesotriton Fuzhongensis (i think!) eggs are now 3 weeks old. In this time the female has laid about 40 eggs.
She has a favourite plastic plant for laying. When it was removed to a partitioned part of the tank laying paused until she found out where it was and she continually climbs into this area.
The plant has been moved to a separate container.
But she continues to lay on a plant placed in the partitioned part of the tank.
Im quite exited and nervous about raising the eggs inspite of reading the raising newts article.
Any extra information on raising paramesotritons greatfully recieved!

Laurie

 

[chris]

Nice Laurie! My own 'fuzhongensis' female is laying at the moment, second year now after aquairing them 3 years ago. When mine hatch i feed them microworm initially, then graduate to chopped whiteworm/grindal worms then to whole white worms then finally bloodworm. I use a bare-bottomed tank with a bubble-filter and javamoss 'pillows' for hiding. The larvae like to hide beneath things which are close to the floor, so I also include a couple of broken tiles propped on one another to form small caves. I use about 15-20 cm of water. The larvae will also take daphnia, but they prefer things that stay on the floor as they are bottom-dwelling.
I would think that daphnia/baby brineshrimo etc could be used if the larvae were kept in shallow water.
The advanced larvae will usually take thawed frozen bloodowrms, which is helpful.
The larval stage is long compared to other newts. When they are starting tp morph I provide a pile of rocks breaking the surface - they prefer a 'stairway' to the surface as opposed to floating islands.
I remove them as soon as they morph to a terrestrial 'woodland' tank, where I feed whiteworm, fruitflie and sweepings. They won't stay in the water like Juraj's hongkongensis (at least my 'form' of fuzhongensis don't). I had a few which climbed out the water and hid behind the platic edging at the top of the tank (since removed) and dessicated even though there was a tank of water beneath them.

I never did any large water changes, just topped up to replace evaporated water, and used an air-tube as a siphon to removes debris from the floor of the tank.

The larvae will act canabalistically when they grow larger, but this can be kept under control by feeding enough (I made sure each larva had at least one whiteworm a day when they were at their largest) and providing enough cover.

I know this claim has been disputed before, but I'm sure lost Paramesotriton larvae before due to predation from Cyclops which went into the tank as food with daphnia, so be careful if you use daphnia from your pond (even if this is disputed, better be safe than sorry - there are plenty of other food sources available). The cyclops which ate the larvae looked like they were repeatedly bumping into the larvae. I left whole larvae with 'food' over night, and by morning all the extremities had been eaten off - whole limbs in the worst cases. A few larvae survived and regrew limbs, but most died.

Sorry that's a little disorganised, but hope it helps.

Chris

 

[laurie]

Thanks Chris great information!

I am currently keeping the eggs in a plastic storage container in 10 litres of water of which i am changing 50% per day. The water is about 20cm deep.

Its interesting that you dont do large water changes.
By bubble filter do you mean one of those foam devices which attach to an air stone pump?
Where do you get your microworms from? Currently i can only find frozen bloodworm/tubifex and live bloodworm/daphnia.

Thanks

Laurie

 

[chris]

Yes, thats the filters I'm thinking of - they are good because they oxygenate the water well, and don't cause too much current or suck larvae into them. I used a standard 2ft aquarium for 20(ish)larvae, and the java moss gre quite a lot, so the water quality was very stable. I wouldn't think more frequent/larger water changes (like you are doing) would be harmful - the eggs seem to be developing fine. I have found that when exposed to poor water quality, or moved from poor to high quality water the eggs tend to hatch prematurely.

You can buy a microworm starter-culture from www.aquaculturesupplies.co.uk . I'd send you some, but my cultures crashed, so I'm waiting for my new culture to be delivered. Its about £3 for one culture and £5 for two. The infor for culturing them is on the site - its pretty simple.

Just out of curiosity, when did you buy your adults? When did courtship start and finish, and when did she start laying eggs?

They look quite near to hatching. Re the feeding, because they have a long pre-hatch preiod - they are fairly developed on hatching - they often start eating within a couple of hours - certainly not as long as most other newts (they have used up most of their yolk).

Chris

 

[laurie]

I bought the adults just over a year ago. This is their second spring with us. The aquatic shop i bought them from was keeping them at tropical fish temperatures so the first spring with us would have been a cooler not spring-like experience. I didnt notice any courtship rituals but the pair are usually very friendly with each other generally.
I noticed the first eggs about 3 weeks ago.

Thanks for the link on microworms!

Laurie

 

[jennifer]

Congratulations on the eggs, Laurie.

If you have a reliable source of live daphnia, you can probably use just that at the beginning. If daphnia are too large, it is possible to size-sort them and use just the small ones. Be careful with the microworms, if you do use them - too many in the container with the larvae can be an irritant, and the larvae will generally grow faster with daphnia or other worm-type foods. You are lucky to have live bloodworms, those will be ideal when the larvae are bigger.

 

[chris]

I have never had trouble with microworms - I drop a blob of them into the tank away from the larvae, and the larvae eventually move towards them. They only need to eat the microworms for a couple of weeks before they can move onto bigger fare. The larvae will take daphnia, but are clumsy in catching them, particularly in deeper water. Once they get onto whiteworms they grow quite quickly.
Chris

 

[laurie]

I came back from work today and a newt had hatched out! I put some microworms in with it but it seemed disinterested, just hanging out on the bottom being quite still.

 

[ester]

Congratulations Laurie! It usually takes a few days before a newly hatched larvae starts eating. Good luck with them!

 

[andy]

It will feed off the yolk sac for a while but i find Paras are ready to eat quicker than a lot of other species.